In response to an FT book review by Edward Luce on 2nd August 2017, entitled ‘The democracy deficit: is the US model still viable?'
This is a book review that includes Condoleezza Rice’s latest work of fiction ‘Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom’
I have focused my comments on one single claim made by Rice, and supported by Luce – that the invasion of Iraq was to prevent the spread of WMD.
“Rice insists that the 2003 US-led invasion of the country had nothing to do with exporting democracy. It was solely about preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction from Saddam Hussein’s fiefdom. This is true but it is not the whole truth” – Ed Luce
This is not true; it is not even remotely true. Any serious analysis of the motivation for the 2nd Iraq war would find Planet Zog fading in its rear view mirror long before reaching that conclusion.
The motivations for the Iraq war can be found in the creation of two neo-conservative ‘strategy initiatives’; one born in Washington, the other in Tel Aviv.
Chronologically, the first was a document written in 1996 entitled ‘A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm’. Written by neo-conservatives in Netanyahu’s Likud Party, this paper advanced the idea that “regime change” in Muslim countries hostile to Israel was necessary to achieve a “clean break” from the diplomatic standoff that had followed the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. It laid out plans to abandon attempts to achieve peace through compromise and advocated instead a policy of confrontation - including the violent removal of leaders such as Saddam Hussein, and anyone else supportive of Israel’s enemies in Palestine and Lebanon. The removal of Saddam was described as “an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right”.
The second was the formation of the ‘Project for the New American Century’ in Washington in 1998, which lobbied President Clinton, to no avail, for the violent overthrow of Saddam. With Clinton out of the Oval Office, replaced by a piece of putty called George W Bush, it took little time for the neocons to take over US Foreign Policy, which led inevitably to Afghanistan and then Iraq. Condoleezza Rice is a fully paid up member of a neocon ‘club’ that consists of dangerous psychopaths such as Cheney, clueless morons like Bush, shallow intellectuals such as Wolfowitz, and smiley hacks like Rice.
This article demonstrates very little understanding of US foreign policy or the covert forces behind it. Condoleezza Rice has a far better understanding of it, but since she is a warmonger and a liar, it is one that she keeps to herself.